Non Timebo Mala-I Will Fear No Evil

Chapter Two: Tarantallegra!

Chapter Two: Tarantallegra!

No matter how hard he tried, James could never beat me in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It wasn’t his fault, no one was better than me in most of my classes—Potions and Divination were the only classes that I had trouble in: Potions because even in the Muggle world I was never good in chemistry or cooking (a fact that James never failed to tease me about) and Divination because I couldn’t always “broaden my mind” like our Professor wanted me to.

“Come on, Elle!” James shouted, tired of being knocked on his butt. Professor Rasmussen had us practicing wand combat since everyone in this class besides me was in their seventh year and was graduating. Our Professor decided it’d be good for them to practice their fighting skills so she paired us up by skill. James and I were the best in the class but he had spent half the class being flung across the room. He just wasn’t as quick and skilled as me, even if some of his spells were a little more powerful.

I laughed grabbing his hand a pulling him to his feet. “Don’t ‘come on, Elle’ me!” I patronized pulling him out of the way of a jinx that was sent flying right by his head. “And watch out or the next stray-jinx may hit you!”

As quick as one of my counter spells, James spun me around pulling my back into his chest wrapping one arm tightly around my waist, the other holding his wand to my temple. “For someone who prides herself on being the best you were never the best at casting the final blow,” he whispered trailing the wand down my face and across my jaw.

Smirking to myself I leaned forward slightly and then slammed my head back into his. I heard his nose snap as he let go of me and I winced knowing I would pay for that later, but spun around and cast the spell before I could change my mind: “Tarantallegra!”

James jumped from the ground—not of his free-will I might add—and started dancing spastically with a look of absolute horror on his face. I couldn’t help it I fell to the ground laughing as he started doing the robot to no particular beat.

“ELLA ROSE WENTWORTH YOU COUNTER THIS SPELL RIGHT NOW BEFORE I START DOING THE WORM OR I WILL START SPILLING YOUR BIGGEST SECRETS!” he screamed fire practically shooting out of his ears.

Still laughing, I got to my feet and tapped my wand to my chin lightly, watching him with an evil smile. “I don’t know. I kinda wanna see what other dance moves you’ve got,” I suggested committing this all to memory to use as some future humiliation against him. “God I wish I had a video camera!”

At this point the entire class had stopped what they were doing to watch James and laugh at his outrageous dance moves. Someone even summoned up some music that the spell immediately adapted to, making James’s moves match the beat.

“Fine what secret shall I tell first?” he demanded as he started break dancing. “How about when you were little and you found your mother’s brassiere and strapped it to your head wore your knickers over your clothes and ran around calling yourself Captain Fly?” I smirked laughing that that was the best story he could come up with. I mean seriously! I was four! “Or how about what happened to that poor bloke you went out with last year and what happened on your date? I’m sure everyone would like to hear about th—”

OH NO! HE DID NOT JUST BRING UP THAT! I ran at full-speed and tackled him before he could say anything else and evidently countering the spell. “JAMES SIRIUS POTTER, I KNEW I SHOULD’VE PUT A FIDELIUS CHARM ON YOU! AT LEAST THEN YOU WOULD’VE BEEN ABLE TO KEEP A SECRET!”

“Alright, alright, disperse!” Professor Rasmussen demanded waving all the other students back to work with her long thin hands. She was a very regal looking woman with high cheekbones and tight lips. Her dark hair swept up into a bun inside her Witch’s hat. “Miss. Wentworth that was an excellent defense move head-butting him like that, I don’t believe I would’ve ever thought to do something like that.”